More than half of the executives surveyed believe their organization will place greater emphasis on business process management in the next year. Social media, CRM and the cloud are key drivers of BPM.

By Samuel Greengard

Over the last decade, business process management has
emerged as an increasingly common way to manage enterprise processes. It is an
effective and proven tool for driving gains in areas such as productivity,
customer focus and compliance. But the state of BPM is evolving, according to a
Global Business Process Management report from Capgemini.

The consulting firm surveyed more than 1,000 senior business
and IT leaders and found that more than half of respondents believe that BPM
will play a more prominent role in their organization over the next year. More
than two-thirds of respondents indicated that their business processes are
either "managed" or "optimized" through the use of BPM.

"Many companies are seeing double-digit improvements as
a result of implementing BPM," states Nicholas Kitson, head of business
process management for Capgemini. He adds that, even among companies unable or
unwilling to measure ROI, executives reported significant benefits.
"Organizations increasingly recognize that integrating systems leads to
more productive workers and fewer glitches and problems," he says.

An overwhelming 82 percent of respondents indicated that BPM
should be treated as a C-level concern, and 68 percent said that it is an
important agenda item at the managerial level. More than half of the executives
believe their organization will place greater emphasis on BPM in the next year,
while 68 percent noted that if the economic climate continues to challenge
their organization, they will ramp up investments.

Hot areas of BPM include banking, insurance and private
equity, where recent increases in regulation— such as MiFID (Markets in Financial
Instruments Directive) and Basel III (published by the Basel Committee
on Banking Supervision)—mean that compliance is paramount. In fact, 78 percent
of the survey respondents from the financial services sector identified
compliance as a key driver for their business, and 48 percent said they will be
investing more in the coming year to respond to the growing impact of
regulations.

The consulting firm found that social media is also driving
adoption of BPM. Over half (56 percent) said that harnessing opportunities and
managing the threats of social media are important business drivers, and these
challenges can be addressed via BPM solutions.

Meanwhile, for consumer-facing businesses, CRM is
increasingly delivered on the back of process management solutions. An
overwhelming 78 percent of respondents who implemented BPM to improve CRM and
customer interaction reported a positive impact. Overall, 96 percent that tried
to measure ROI from a BPM investment reported a positive return.

Despite all the gains, organizations are feeling some pain.
For one thing, Capgemini found that there's a lack of clarity about who should
hold the reins for the BPM budget. Financial management of BPM is split between
senior business management (18 percent), IT (16 percent), operations (13
percent), business units (13 percent) and dedicated process management units
(12 percent). This fractured approach could ultimately undermine the
effectiveness of BPM, Capgemini notes.

Some organizations are more successful than others in
reaping the benefits of BPM. Only 18 percent of companies reported that they
have achieved process optimization, and 32 percent admitted they are failing to
formally measure the ROI of their process management effectively. The majority
(55 percent) stated that the key barrier to success is people working in silos
across organizations, thus preventing collaboration.

Kitson says that BPM will gain further traction in the
months ahead, especially as cloud computing takes hold. "BPM is becoming a
part of the infrastructure layer of organizations," He concluded.